New Delhi: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took strong exception to BJP member Maneka Gandhi`s remarks that the Railways was "the biggest smuggler" of wildlife, saying the comment was "unfair."
Banerjee got angry when Gandhi asked during Question Hour
in Lok Sabha what the Railway Ministry was doing to prevent
smuggling of cattle and wildlife by trains from West Bengal to
Bangladesh.
"I am sorry these comments are made by the honorable
member. I respect the member. But the comment is unfair," the
Railway Minister said.
However, she said, if the member had a specific complaint,
her Ministry would look into it.
On cargo handling, she said the Railways had incentives
for freight forwarders, benefiting traders.
She said the freight schemes were "user-friendly" and
cargo was booked on the basis of a forwarding note executed by
consignors.
"We want full loading of goods trains," she said, adding,
"to promote rail-road integration, Railways have schemes and
provisions like Rail-side Warehousing Complexes developed by
the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and container
operators including Container Corporation of India Limited
(CONCOR) and incentive scheme for freight forwarders."
Various other schemes for rail-road integration are
under examination, she added.
PTI
